Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Kel Carruthers

Aussie World Champion Kel Carruthers was at Pomona and casually pushed Chris Carr's Harley to the Riders Introduction line.This is something that comes quite naturally to Kel as he has been the Team Manager and Tuner for the greatest World Champions namely Kenny Roberts , (THREE TIMES! ) Agostini ! and Eddie Lawson. His list of accomplishments and the riders he has been associated with is very long and impressive. So pushing a Champs bike to the line is common place for this Guru of the motorcycle racing world. First and foremost, Carruthers is a RACER with a World Championship to his credit and back to back Isle of Man TT victories. He is a fair dinkum mechanical genius and has to be credited with Yamaha's road racing success world wide, starting in the 70's. He lead the Giant Killer era when he raced the Vesco 350s against the big BSAs and Triumphs and Harleys, effectively insuring their extinction in competitive road racing. He developed the Yamaha 500 GP bikes and the TZ750 which enjoyed so much success. Kel is Motorcycle Racing Royalty and I was so pleased to see him there and see him enjoying the whole Flat Track scene.